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Soviet Log 52
Interdimensional Cathedral Crawl We started things off once again clustered around the rear of St. Basil's just south of Red Square. Kat picked the lock on the back door of Cathedral No. 4 on the day, and everybody moved inside. It was dark and dusty in the antechamber within, a departure from our previous visit, but we were coming in the back way, so it didn't seem totally out of place. We did a round of Spell-Casting to replace the Buffs that Hans had Nullified, then cautiously proceeded further into the church. Kat immediately noticed with her Tracking skill though that the next hallway was copiously coated in dust, and we thought we heard a slight keening noise echoing from the main chamber, so we had the NPCs hold up where they were while we moved ahead to investigate. As we went into the Altar room the noise began to rise, and we soon determined that it was emanating from a crack in the rear wall. Rocquette head-strongedly pushed her way in first, but Kat soon yanked her back, pointing out the footprints in the dust that she was obscuring. They appeared to be bare footed humanoids? We followed them through a series of smoothly bored tunnels laced with interesting crystals until they descended into a subterranean ravine. Milling around to ether side were hundreds of monstrosities similar to those formed from the Soviet Troops we had fought in the square. These ones seemed to be some kind of 'blanks' however, devoid of programming, and were just milling about bumping into the wall like they had poor AI Pathfinding? There was an opening further up on the opposite side of the ravine, so obviously we had to investigate further. Eva and Kat Stealthed across between the 2 groups of automatons, and Mei Translocated. Outsmarting herself, Roc used her Jump Field to beam over to the other side, inexplicably making an audible popping noise as she returned to normal space, alerting one of the creatures. At this point we all got a chance to hear that keening wail up close as the Infected let out a blast. Everyone saved but Kat who rolled a natural 20 and accepted her fate with zen-like aplomb. Stun, Sonic, No Squad Command was a great way to start things (#bullshit)! Hoping to avoid an incident, we all booked it, but Kat stunned and stuck with a a poor initiative roll was left behind. She managed to extricate herself with a Smokescreen, though, and the Infected lost interest and returned to the horde. Perched in the small cave on the far side of the ravine we found a tidy campsite with a mysterious stranger making tea over a small fire. Roc and her enhanced motivators pulled up first, but it took Mei's assistance to work out some communication. He introduced himself as Zheng He, a traveler from the east, and mentioned that oh yeah he had been stuck in this alternate dimension for "500 Seasons", and wasn't it interesting that the Nazi's had shown up recently to carve out the elaborate fake Cathedral interior out front and why do you think they left all these monsters? D'oh! Alarmed to hear that we were potentially trapped in an alternate reality we decided that we should regroup with the Soviet Loyalists and the Hot-Shots, and suggested to Zheng-He that he should accompany us. He gathered up his few belongings, Katya dropped another smokescreen to hide us, and Mei opened up a Portal across the ravine. As we approached the 'Altar Room' we detected motion ahead. Proceeding cautiously, we saw a more disciplined looking squad of the terrible mutations entering the next chamber. Stealthing ahead, we moved to engage! Rocquette set up to ambush them as they entered the chamber, but Eva drew first blood, blasting with the Tesla Ray and catching them all in the Area of Effect. This seemed to enrage them, and 4 of them charged in to surround Eva and began to lay a wicked beatdown upon her. Rocquette had charged ahead simultaneously to try and get a rear strike in, but got Natural 20 Defended and ended up isolated in the other room. Two other monstrosities stormed in on Kat, Mei and Zheng, soon inflicting nasty cumulative Bleed on Mei. We immediately noticed that their terrible tentacle swarms, which formed and reformed, auto-attacked us anytime we moved, which obviously sucked. Eva was taking her beats like a champion, but the cumulative Bleed was soon making the end of the Round look increasingly problematic for her. In desperation she unleashed a Selene burst at the floor at her feet and cheesed her totally not broken IFF System to bathe the whole area in electricity. 3 of the 4 Wyrmites were unable to defend against the onslaught but one of them repeatedly made critcal defends to flee the AoE. With their RFs down Eva switched to the thug blade to start Carving up the surprisngly resiliant Wyrmites. Then Kat, sensing Eva's distress, moved in to cheaply pick off the easy kill-steals engage the Infected attacking her despite knowing full well that she was unlikely to rebuff their advances in her deprived and wounded state. Luckily, Eva had already damaged her attackers badly so Kat destroyed three (of four) them in short order with some slice-dicey. Meanwhile, out in the other room Roc was attacked by an additional previously undetected foe, and was forced to make multiple Acrobatic Defends, but then got Criticalled anyway, rending a huge tear in her armor. And Zheng He proved to be a truly competent warrior, handling two of the zombie beasts after one of them tore off Mei Lin's leg. Roc prepared to harvest the suffering render first aid, but was still tangled up with her assailant in the hallway. Kat was planning to finish off Evas last attacker but instead she heeded Roqs cries for assistance, (so she could heal Eva - or so said), and wheeled around to trade positions with her, (despite taking additional attacks to do so). With the creature's RF thoroughly raped Eva and Mei finished the final one attacking Eva. Shortly after, Kat Finished the last off using a combination of misdirected, reflected, and devastating Kalistador strikes. Before the end of the Round, Roc decided to ignore Eva's pleas/bleed and instead got Mei's Bleeding under control and brought her back to consciousness. Eva, unfortunately, with armour smashed, and body broken, exploded all over the wall in an orgy of Bleed 28, losing some toes and going unconscious in the process. With the last Wyrmite simultaneously attacking on a 30 the difference between a grievous wound, or not, ended up being what Roq could have healed. Maximum suffering achieved. Rewards 11 Generic Points 1 Combat 4 Random Points and 1 Benny Roq 1 Benny Katya Category:Soviet